86: The Suicide of Tyler Clementi & a Discovery in a Cooler

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Tyler Clementi was a smart, talented young man with a promising future. But shortly before his freshman year at Rutgers University, Tyler’s randomly assigned roommate, Dharun Ravi, discovered that Tyler was gay. Dharun he tweeted about it. He IM’ed his friends about it. He seemed obsessed. When the semester began and Tyler invited a date back to the dorm, Dharun and his friend Molly Wei spied on Tyler and his date via a webcam. Once again, Dharun tweeted. He encouraged others to tune in. What Dharun did was unspeakably cruel. It didn’t take Tyler long to find out.

When Justin Rey showed up at his storage unit in Lenexa, Kansas, with his young daughters, it didn’t take long for police to show up, too. Police worried about the girls. They were dirty. They didn’t appear healthy. When police asked about the girls’ mother, their concerns grew to full-on alarm. Justin pointed to a cooler. Inside was the dismembered body of his wife, Jessica Montiero. Justin had a hell of an explanation.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“The story of a suicide,” by Ian Parker for The New Yorker
“Witness: Viewing Party Planned,” by Gene Racz for The Courier-News
“Ex-classmates testify in trial,” by Gene Racz for The Central New Jersey Home News
“Webcam witness: First, pair tried to contain it,” by Geoff Mulvihill for the Associated Press
“Student says he helped set up webcam,” by Geoff Mulvihill for the Associated Press
“Man testifies about his relationship with the late Rutgers student,” by Jonathan Allen for Reuters

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Dad charged after police say investigation revealed more than human remains at Lenexa storage unit” by Megan Dillard, Fox4KC
““You don’t forget things like that:” Witness describes bringing suspect and two young girls to Lenexa storage unit” by Megan Dillard, Fox4KC
“Outburst in court-Man whose wife’s body was found in cooler yells about Johnson County injustice” by John Pepitone, Fox4KC
“Court documents offer graphic details of inside of Lenexa U-haul where police found man, two children and wife’s remains” by Makenzie Koch, Fox4KC
“Man charged in Lenexa storage unit case named a suspect in California murder” by Makenzie Koch, Fox4KC
“Attorney for man charged with dismembering wife files motion saying Justin Rey is unfit to withstand trial” by Fox 4 Newsroom, Fox4KC
“In unusual fashion, man accused of dismembering wife’s body in KC files handwritten motions to dismiss charges” by Fox 4 Newsroom, Fox4KC
“Man found in Lenexa with wife’s dismembered body is competent for trial” by Tony Rizzo, Kansas City Star
“Prosecutors allege child porn found on phone of man who once said he cut up wife’s body” by Associated Press, Fox4KC
“Trial begins for man found in Lenexa storage unit with kids, wife’s dismembered body” by Shannon O’Brien, Fox4KC
“Man found in Lenexa U-Haul with kids, wife’s dismembered body takes stand in trial” by Alana Laflore, Fox4KC
“Man discovered in Lenexa U-Haul with kids, wife’s body found guilty of child endangerment” by Makenzie Koch and Zac Summers, Fox4KC
“Justin Rey sentenced to nearly 9 years in prison for child porn possession, child endangerment” by Andrew Lynch, Fox4KC
“Man skinned and dismembered wife so badly cops couldn’t tell if she was male or female” by Jimmy McCloskey, Metro